Solid-axle hubs -- no cone locknuts?
 

Hello everyone.

I'm fixing up my girlfriend's bike, which is a 20+ year old Murry. It was originally her daughter's bike and has had little or no maintenance over the years.

Today's question is about the front axle. The hubs were made by Wald (in USA!) and have 5/16 solid axles.

As you can see from the pictures below, there are no locknuts to keep the cones from rotating; instead the inner portion of the axle threads are knurled.

Is that the way cheapo hubs are/were made, or do you think the locknuts were lost somewhere along the way?

Should I add locknuts? There appears to be plenty of space to fit them without having to spread the forks.

The axles are 5/16 diameter. Are locknuts likely to be easily found for that axle?

Is there any way to make this a tool-free hub removal? We are hoping to put the bikes on my roof rack, and it would be nice to be able to do that without tools.

Thanks in advance for your help!

-Tom in SoCal

The first two photo shows the wheel immediately after removal. You can see the cones, the lawyer tabs, and the fork clamping nuts. But there is no locknut to keep the cone in place; just the lawyer tab.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=337103http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=337104


The third and fourth photos show the cones and axle after disassembly and cleaning. You can see the knurled portions of the axle threads.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=337105http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=337106

Wow, that's... iffy. Welcome to the wonderful world of kid's bikes where anything goes - incl plastic bushings instead of headset bearings etc.

On one hand, the current design has apparently worked well enough for several years. OTOH, I wouldn't trust it, and I don't think anyone who has had a hub seize up mid-ride would either.
I really can't say anything about the likelihood of you finding locknuts of the correct thread. My approach to things like that if the parts bin doesn't provide an answer is to bring the offending part to a LBS with a bigger parts bin and ask them to help me sort it out.
Pretty much the same goes for the possibility of finding a q/r axle of that dimension.
I've never seen one, but that's not proof of them not existing.
Depending on the cup&cone size, it might be possible to replace the whole axle assembly with one that's q/r compatible.
What's the wheel size? It might be simpler/cheaper to try to source a new wheel featuring both a sensible bearing design and q/r compatibility all in one go.

Thanks dabac. I'll hit the bike shops at lunch today and see what I can find.

I was surprised to find what looks like replacement parts online; note that no lock nuts are included so I guess that answers that question.
http://www.amazon.com/Wald-Front-Axl...584050&sr=1-64

Thanks again for your thoughts.

-Tom in SoCal